The CJEU washes its hands of Member States’ fingerprint retention : Joined Cases C-446/12 – 449/12 Willems

Summary, in English

When is the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU applicable to a Member State measure? In C-446/12 – 449/12 Willems the CJEU held that a Member State which stores and uses fingerprint data, originally collected in compliance with Regulation No 2252/2004, but which the Member State then uses for purposes other than those stipulated in the Regulation, is not acting within the scope of EU law, and therefore is not bound by the Charter. In this casenote I suggested that this case appears to indicate a retreat by the Court from the expansive interpretation of the scope of application of the Charter which it had previously laid down in C-617/10 Fransson.

• Author: Eduardo Gill-Pedro
• Department/s: Department of Law
• Publishing year: 2015-04-29
• Language: English
• Links: http://europeanlawblog.eu/2015/04/29/joined-cases-c-44612-44912-willems-the-cjeu-washes-its-hands-of-member-states-fingerprint-retention/
• Document type: Web publication
• Topic: Law
• Keywords: EU law; EU Fundamental Rights; Scope of application; Biometric data; Right to privacy; Court of Justice of the EU; EU-rätt; EU:s grundläggande rättigheter; Biometriska data; Europadomstolen
• Status: Published